Year 3: A Leaderless Discussion

Book Club this month centered around Chapters 4 (First Days of School) & 5 (Routines) in Intellectual Character by Ron Ritchhart.  The group used The Leaderless Discussion protocol to structure the conversation.  The discussion pertained to the following questions that were posed by the group members:

• How can we get students to listen to other students' arguments and adjust or reevaluate their own thinking?
• We want a learning oriented classroom versus a work oriented classroom.  How does our current grading system support this?  And if it doesn’t, what do we need to do to change the grading?
• How did this chapter on routines change or extend your understanding or ideas of thinking routines?

• How does a student’s first steps into your classroom on the first day of school affect the rest of the year?